Pressure on big stars increase as spots in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship dwindle

July 09, 2014|By Don Coble, The Florida Times-Union (MCT)

Eleven spots are filled for the upcoming Chase for the Championship. That leaves just five openings — and only eight races remaining to get one of the guaranteed entries.

For Aric Almirola, Sprint Cup's newest winner, things couldn't be better. His rain-shortened victory last Sunday in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway allowed him to jump over a handful of other drivers on the standby list for the playoffs.

It also put even more pressure on some of the sport's biggest stars.

"I mean, obviously, the fewer spots there are, the intensity picks up for the guys in that position," Brian Vickers said. "You know, I think every week you go to every race trying to win and knowing what's at stake if you do and what's at stake if you don't. The closer to the Chase you get, the more that intensity is going to pick up."

The driver who might be in the best position to get one of the final eight wins in NASCAR's regular season is Ambrose.

He's a road-course regular who won at Watkins Glen, N.Y., in 2011 and 2012.

Everyone else is picking their spot in the next two months to make their charge.

Eight of Kahne's 16 career wins have come one of the eight remaining tracks.

"Really where we are at right now, as a team, we need to show up each weekend and put full weekends together, from myself to Kenny Francis, crew chief to everybody on our team," Kahne said. "We just need to step up, and if we do that, I feel like, yes, there is going to be pressure, we want to be in the Chase.

"But we have fast enough cars. We have all the equipment, everything there to do it. We just need to put those weekends together. Put ourselves in position, and there is still plenty of time to win races."

McMurray is just as anxious to win a race.

"I really feel like each race between now and Richmond, we'll have the chance to win if we make all the right decisions," he said.

For Almirola, the next eight races can be spent preparing for the Chase. It's a luxury they wanted but didn't fully expect.

"We have our off weekends, don't get me wrong," Almirola said. "But for the large majority of the races, we run in the top 15 on a regular basis, and I think that that is a very respectable feat.

"Obviously we're not Jimmie Johnson. We don't win every week and run up front every week. But I think that what we are accomplishing and what we are doing is extremely respectable."

Almirola has a reason to admit his team's short-comings and yet not be too concerned.